Army veteran killed protecting children on fist day of school.
The first day of class at a Texas elementary school quickly went from a day of excitement to one of tragedy Monday as a mother was killed shielding several children from a car in the school’s parking lot.
Kharisma Ashlee James, 33, died at the scene at Mary N. Tippin Elementary School, in El Paso. Three students were also injured, including two of the James’ children, school officials said. They were taken to the hospital for treatment.
Victor Araiza, chief of the El Paso Independent School District’s police force, said at a media briefing Tuesday morning that the victim’s 6-year-old daughter, her 7-year-old son and the third child, a 10-year-old fellow student, are in serious condition but are getting better. “All of those children are expected to survive,” Araiza said.
James’ Facebook page indicated that she was a U.S. Army veteran who served in Iraq. After eight years in the service, she went back to school with the help of a scholarship from the Women’s Fund of El Paso, according to a May 2017 blog post on the organization’s website.
The entire article is available HERE
Are there even words … it is said that, “A hero is someone who has given his or her life to something bigger than oneself.”
Category: Veterans in the news
a real tragedy. but as The Man Himself said, “greater love hath no man than that he lay down his life for another.” James did well. heartfelt condolences to her family.
May God be with this hero’s family during this very tragic time. I hope they got the bastard that did this?
It was an older guy picking up his grandchildren who hit the gas instead of the brake. He could face charges, but really, it’s just a terrible accident and the guilt this guy will have for the rest of his life will probably exceed any punishment he could be given by the courts.
The “older guy” was 58. There is something going on with this. There must be. Police said he was unfamiliar with the vehicle. I guess the brake and accelerator were switched in it. There just has to be more.
2/17 Air Cav;
This happens a lot down here where I live and most of the drivers involved are usually in their mid to late 80’s. One strip mall has had 3 cars jump the curb and go through the windows. When I’m in front of any row of stores and a car is coming into the parking spot, I walk to either side so if the driver thinks he or she is stepping on the brake but is stepping on the gas and keeps the pressure on because the car is not stopping then the car is over the curb and into the building. Beside the incident with the 3 cars VS building, there was one at my shopping center and another which went into the Winn Dixie liquor store wall down the road from me. I get a number of these texts of vehicles VS building every day from Incident Paging Network that I subscribe to.
Yeah, I get it when drivers are in their 80s or 90s. It’s frightening when I see them on the road, just tooling along, perfectly oblivious to the world around them. I am all for driving tests after a certain age. What that age should be I leave to others, but it really should happen. If someone’s last actual driving test (not license renewal)was during the Eisenhower administration, they really ought to be retested.
Maybe the DMV should have some kind of a reaction timed test once a year when a person gets over a certain age. When I was in the NYARNG 75-77, I took this drivers test that had me with these two hand stampers that I had to hit these circles on a board. I think it was some sort of an electronic thing that measured my reaction time. i think there were some other tests but I don’t remember. Anyone out there remember or took this test?
“i think there were some other tests but I don’t remember.” I know you didn’t intend that line to be funny but in this context, it’s a scream. Just be sure to remember that the long one on the floor to the right is the accelerator and the short one next to it is the brake.
More confusing would be a clutch pedal.
I don’t even want to think about that.
As a 31 year old, 58 is ancient.
I get it. And to a 16-year-old, 31 is old as dirt.
Probably. But I teach 16 year olds, so I don’t care what they think.
Having passed 58, I can assure you that a 31 year old is a wet-behind-the-ears whelp.
Hell, I’d love to be as young as 58 again!
This week my family had our DMV revoke my grandmothers drivers license at tender age of 92. Nobody wants to do this but it has to be done sometimes.
I did that with my mom, after she had a stroke. I also took her car, as we didn’t live close to each other. I made the arrangements for meals to be delivered, and for one of her neighbors to take her grocery shopping.
Then she moved even farther away, and got the Secretary of State’s office to give her her license back, even though we had given the Neurologist’s diagnosis and her own doctor’s statement that she wasn’t safe to drive, and would never be. SO, I went through the whole thing again, to get her license revoked.
Sad. So very, very sad.
Gratitude to her family for sharing her with the rest of us for a while. May they find some peace one day and comfort in knowing how much we appreciate her and them.
Prayers up for the children as they recover and heal. Prayers up for the family on their journey of recovery.
This is too sad for words. Just too sad.
Veteran or not, a mothers reaction to a child being harmed is instinct. I suspect being a veteran reinforces that quality and brings out the best in people. Sad story.
100% with you on that. Another parent, also a mother, said to be a friend of the victim, told a reporter that she heard the crash but didn’t go toward it with others because there was nothing she could do. How did she know that? I guarantee that if she had been the victim, Ms. James would have been the first one there to help. And, that, is the difference, as you point out.
This is a true hero. Rest easy, Soldier.
RIP Kharisma James.
Drunk at 3:30 in the afternoon? In ElPaso that is not too far fetched. Lots of drunks in that town. And non-licensed drivers as well.
Very strong correlation between total time in the US and driving ability there… whole lot of border jumpers have little driving experience due to extreme poverty back home. Then there is the whole miles vs. kilometers issue.. nothing like going down I10 and realize the guy in front of you is doing 60…. kilometers.
” … Roger Hawking, 58 …” by the name, he is pretty white bread.
As far as his age, there’s a whole spectrum of categories “old folks” fit into. If he has done nothing to protect his mental faculties, via supplements or mental exercises, losing track at 58 becomes very believable. Or, he could have been under the influence. I don’t know, but this is pretty sad.
I will be praying for everybody, including Hawking.
A mother bear and her cubs. What a bond. Props to you, lady.
I lived in El Paso for a while after I ETS’d from Bliss. Deep respect for this departed hero.
Yes, any parent would protect their children, but the Veteran had that “Situational Awareness Thing” going on and reacted in time to protect Her babies. So tragic all the way around, they lost their parent, parents lost a child, someone lost a mate, and the medical field lost what was probably a damn good nurse. HEY NFL JERKS, it’s True Heroes like this that made it possible for you to “take a knee”.
While on the subject of cars, I go to start my car yesterday morning and it starts to vibrate like crazy with the check engine icon on so I get it flat bedded to the dealer and he calls me around 430Pm and says that a rodent/rodents chewed threw the wire harness. Hopefully I will get it back by tommoro with around five hundred bucks added to my credit card. I went on line and there are a lot of things to try and prevent another harness loss. Turns out these wire harnesses use soy in the manufacturing process that wraps the wire strands.
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